Drowning in One's Humanity
by Unsugar
Summary: Is it mine, or is it hers? Or maybe both of us? But this is not the time for this. For this is the end, and no one is at fault. For 500themes, 175 - It wasn't his/her/my/your fault…


**Title:** Drowning in One's Humanity

**Author/Artist:** unsugared aka Miracchin

**Rating:** PG

**Fandom:** Saint Seiya (original series)

**Character(s)/Pairing(s):** Shun, Hades, Athena/HadesxShun

**Theme:** 175. It wasn't his/her/my/your fault…

**Genre/s:** Angst

**Warnings:** Some sort of slash, traitor!Shun, definitely Athena-bashing. You have been warned.

**Words: **1995

**Summary:** Is it mine, or is it hers? Or maybe both of us? But this is not the time for this. For this is the end, and no one is at fault.

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** Mine? Yeah right.

* * *

"_Athena!"_

_It happened so fast. Just shortly after Seiya was stabbed by Hades' sword, all of them were so charged up with energy that they thought they would finally be able to defeat Hades, once and for all._

_But they thought wrong._

_Athena, apparently, was not strong enough to defeat the Underworld God. And almost as easily as defeating Seiya, Hades attacked the Goddess._

_In front of their own eyes, even with them doing their best to protect her, the Goddess of War went down, not by the black-coloured sword, but by an energy attack that could simply kill a mortal._

"_Shun, check on Athena and protect her!"_

_Shun did not need to be reprimanded twice. Trusting his brother and friends that they were able to protect themselves, Shun turned around and ran towards the fallen Goddess._

"_Athena…" Shun kneeled down by her side, making sure his Rolling Defense was up and ready to protect her._

_There was no blood pouring out of her body; no was not even a crack on her Clothes. The Andromeda Saint wondered briefly what injuries that caused her to fell down. _

_But his attention was diverted from his Goddess when he heard a loud crack resounding from where the other Saints were fighting._

"_Hyoga!"_

_Hyoga was laying down, new cracks appearead on his white God Cloth. Still, he tried to get up again, and looked at the horrified Shun with a shaky smile. "I'm fine, just protect Athena." _

"_But…" His concerned tone was not heard by the Cygnus Saint as he ran off again to join Ikki and Shiryu._

_With a worried heart, Shun turned back back to the Goddess._

_There was no injury on Athena's body; she was just unconscious. Maybe there was an internal bleeding, but Shun could not be so sure. _

_Still, surely that was not enough to put her out of commission? She is a goddess, and even her mortal Saints could withstand more than that, body trained or not._

_He was taken out of his deep thoughts by a hand on his knee. "Shun…"_

"_Athena? Are you alright?"_

_If she answered him, he could not hear her. His attention was again diverted by a loud sound of explosion, this time acoompanied by screams of familiar voices._

"_Brother? Hyoga? Shiryu?"_

_He was about to stand up, but the hand of his knee held him down._

"_They are fine, Shun."_

"_But you heard the screams, Athena! And the explosion! Even if they managed to get out alive, I don't think they will be fine."_

_Athena continued as if she did not hear him. "I want you to stay beside me, since Seiya is down."_

"_B-but…" For some reasons, that did not dwell well with him. Did Athena care not about her Saints? "The rest are…"_

"_I don't care about that, Shun! I just want you to stay here!"_

_His world turned black after he listened to those words._

_

* * *

_

He could barely remember what happened after that. The next thing he recalled was that Athena was unconscious again, his brother and friends were lying around not moving and he was the only one awake to face Hades.

Yet as he looked at the calm face, he felt his energy draining away. He was lying on his side, unable to move his fingers, let alone trying to get up.

"Never thought you, of all people, have the guts to do it," a deep voice talked to him, though he was barely aware of it.

"To do… What?" Shun tried to get up again, but a large hand on his head stopped him from moving. It was then he realised he was not wearing his God Cloth. "What… Happened?"

An amused chuckle answered him. It soothed him, despite from who it came. "Ho… You do not remember what happened?" The hand on his head played with the strands of his hair, yet he did not bother to remove it. "You lost control of your cosmo, shocked the rest of your group and injured Athena even worse than I did. Did something happen between both of you?"

"… Since when do you care?" _'Why am I talking to him like this? I should be… fighting him…'_

A pair of light green eyes looked down at him. Shun vaguely noticed that the God was sitting beside him. "What if I said you intrigued me?"

"Why would you… I thought it was Seiya that intrigued you."

Hades looked thoughtful for a while, almost absent-mindedly playing with Shun's hair. "The Pegasus Saint? No, not really. All Pegasus Saints have remained in my memory because they seemed to play important roles during all the Holy Wars. In his case," he nodded towards the direction where Seiya was supposed to be, "It was because he is a childhood friend to both Athena and you."

Shun blinked. "What do I have to do with everything?"

Hades chuckled, and the Saint found it soothing, of all things. "Shun, in case you have already forgotten, you are _my_ vassal. Really, you are a unique person. You're the first human to be my vassal _and_ also one of Athena's Saints. And you're the first one to actually fight me _after_ I gained control of your body."

"I don't think I can take that as a compliment."

Hades shrugged, which Shun thought was not a God-like characteristic. "It still means that you interest me, in more than one way."

When Shun did not say anything, the God continued, "How can you ever find trust in these humans?"

Shun thought for a while, before replying. It was not like they were fighting. Instead, this situation… Seemed peaceful. "Because they are trust-worthy. There are many bad people, I know, but there are also good people. You just have to take a good look at them."

"What I see are nothing but filthy humans who do nothing but hurting others and dirtying their own world."

Shun smiled sadly at that. "That is because you only see the sins that humans made. No humans are purely clean, you know."

"But you are-"

The Saint cut the other off, god or not. "I have blood on my hands. And no matter what people said, taking other lives when you clearly have no rights to do it is definitely wrong."

Taking the silence as his permission to talk, Shun continued. "And more importantly, _I_ am a human. If I don't trust humans, who will?"

"… You truly are a pure soul, Shun."

"Huh? But I just said…"

"Listen to me first," Hades gently pushed Shun back to the ground when he tried to get up and argue. "Do you know how most refer my vassal as?" He received a shake of head. "They called him 'the boy with the purest soul on Earth'. The reason is because even after all the bad things that they have seen or had happened to them, they still able to trust people around them, even trusting that their enemies are able to change for the better."

"That's…"

"That sounds like you, isn't it?"

Shun casted his eyes elsewhere, avoiding to look at the gentle smile that the God had on his face. To be praised by your supposedly-enemy, isn't that supposed to be bad? The Andromeda looked up again, this time with wide eyes, when Hades said something else.

"Shun, be my Lord of the Underworld."

Hades continued on as if he did not see the stunned look on Shun's face. "You said humans should be trusted, right? Well, I decided to give them a chance. But I won't be doing it alone. This War has taken a lot from me; my army, Thanatos and Hypnos and even my strength. I need someone to represent me, and I think the most suitable one would be you."

"But… Me, as your…," To say Shun was speechless was an understatement. One time he was one of Hades' enemies, and now his enemy wants him to be his representative?

"Besides, you have, in a way, betrayed Athena." Shun did not argue that, so he continued. "Apart from being an Athena's Saint, that is one thing left for you to do."

Shun knew that. After hurting Athena, there was no turning back for him. And from their conversation, Hades had shown that he indeed interested in Shun, even willing to tolerate the sins that humans made after witnessing how Shun perceived life.

After a while, Shun hesitatantly made up his mind. But before that… "I will agree, if you are willing to spare the world and my friends' lives from whatever you planned to do."

Instead of the disagreement that he expected, Shun only received a wide smile and a nod from the Underworld God.

"I can do that. That is my plan, anyway. But you have to be aware that I can not spare Athena's life, even if you plead for her," Hades said, his voice turned cold and emotionless.

Shun closed his eyes, recalling everything the Goddess had said before he lost control of his power. What he would say next would most probably shock the immortal. "I… I don't care about her right now."

He only received a long silence before a quiet voice asked, "Why? I thought you were loyal to her." A hand rested on his cheek, making him opened his eyes to look up at the God.

'_Is that… concern I see in his eyes?'_ "I… I don't know how I should feel for her now. I _want_ to remain loyal to her, but her words at that time… They hurt me more than all my injuries ever did to me. I know we have to protect her no matter what, but is it too much for her to worry for us in exchange?"

"…"

"Is it… Is it wrong for me to be angry at her for that?"

"I don't think I can give you a correct answer to that," Hades waited until the Saint looked up at him fully. "To be worried, to be angry, to be concerned; those are all emotions, feelings that mostly only humans have. Gods like us, after so long, learned not to focus too much on those emotions. Some even disregard them totally." Noticing the shocked expression, he continued, "But Athena _is_ expected to be kind to her warriors, for eventhough she is the Goddess of War, her kindness is the one that can save humanity," he smirked at this, "Or so the humans said."

"What about you, then?"

The hand in Shun's hair stopped abruptly, making him think that he asked the wrong question, but it continued its caressing, albeit a bit stiffly. "I have my concerns only for my army and no one else. But there are rare exceptions."

Shun was about to ask about the exception when Hades leaned down and kissed lightly on his forehead, rendering him speechless again.

"You do realise what this means, right? You 'attacked' Athena with your cosmo, your Cloth left you and you made the decision to be loyal to me in exchange for the world and your friends; they could only mean one thing."

Shun, who was still stunned with the sudden act of affection, could only reply with a quiet 'yes'.

"Now..." Hades sat straighter, looking at Athena who seemed to have regain consciousness. "It's time to finish this. But before that," the hand that was in Shun's hair moved down to his chest, and with a small concentration on his face, the gold star-shaped pendant appeared around the slim neck.

The God of the Underworld stood up, and before he walked towards the fallen Goddess he turned Shun one more time, "Whatever happens, none of this is your fault. This is how it is meant to be. Remember that, Shun."

The smile that accompanied the words almost made Shun smile and he felt that his doubtful heart had finally calmed down.

He had firmly made his decision.

* * *

**A/N:** … Yes, this is one twisted Shun. Well, maybe not twisted per say, but angry and feel betrayed. And I coud not help but think I make Hades more… _human_, if that is the right word to use. Please correct me if there is anything wrong with this.

Some might see this to have connected to 'Bid Goodbye to the World', and yes, it is.

Thank you for reading and comment are well appreciated.

Unsugar


End file.
